Oregon Trail Challenge Diary

Since we’re leaving the waystation now, have a list of the sims on the trek!

I keep some of my favorites (Amber, Armand, June, Tina Tinker, Becky and most of my detective sims) in reserve to add as needed or to declare that “they’ve lived in Strangerville all along”. I will also use Finchwick with all its premades as the neighboring town, should I decide to continue playing this save after the trek arrives at its destination.

Sims marked with an * have been in Strangerville playthroughs before, be that as heroes, villains or background townies.

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Anderson (not part of the trek yet, but soon): Hank* is the new guide. The frontiersman had his share of triumphs and losses, suffers from a growing disappointment in humankind as a whole, but will help individuals in need. And after all this time he is still the best in this trade.

Hank is also the father of Connor (not the horse), but the relation hasn’t come up yet.

Andronikov: Luther* and Soren* are foundlings who grew up in the same orphanage Daniel was adopted from as a baby. Like every kid with indeterminate parentage they got the headmaster’s surname and consider themselves siblings.
Jerry Bellini worked a thankless job for a demanding master. While inquiring about the price of a “prairie schooner” at the cartwright, he met the Andronikov siblings. They decided to throw what little money they had together to “find their fortune” in the west.

Archer: The young widow archer raises her late husband’s daughter* from an earlier marriage. They are very close-knit. Kara* knows she wants to be a mother more than anything, and also wants more children, but she isn’t certain whether she also wants to be a wife again.

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Behr: Candace and her brother Yuri have inherited a house in San Francisco. It was joining this trek or the dangerous Cap Hoorn journey for them.
Yuri is actually a girl named Yuki, who was posing as a boy to score a job opening as a novice seaman. Now that the sisters decided to take the overland route, Yuki wants to protect her sister, whom she adores. So far it has worked, the only problem arose in the delightful form of Hugo Villareal, whom Yuki also adores…

Bjergsen: An immigrant family fresh from the ship from Europe.

Chapman: Mother Rose and son Adam follow Pa Chapman, who had taken an earlier trek into the west. The Chapmans are experienced farmers, but didn’t have enough money to buy a wagon a few years ago, also Adam wasn’t of age yet, so Pa he hired himself to the wagon company as a groom.
Pa left his wife and son a letter at each waystation (and at one of the last ones they’ll find him buried, sadly).

Rose is a potential wife for Hank Anderson.

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Colch: After an eventful life and tumbling into and out of relationships and prison, Portia has decided to settle down, preferably in a place where nobody knows her. Her son Brandon is part of the “Renegades” gang.

Portia is a potential wife for Hank Anderson. Additionally Hank and Jacques are possible fathers of Brandon.

Delgato: The wife of Strangerville’s mayor wants to own a persian cat. She is willing to pay so much, that leaving their home behind just to deliver the fluffball is worth it for the whole Delgato family.
Now Barty snr. is leaving a trail of his own at every waystation, farm and tent camp that the trail passes (and jnr. is learning quickly from his dad!)

The picture still has Bleu instead of Barty jnr., I changed them around only later. Sorry!

Faust: Ulrike* Faust and Carlos* Patel are both employees of Mr. Villareal, she as a psychic, he as bodyguard. Dutifully following their master on this trek, maybe on this journey these two will find a new, and deeper, appreciation for each other than just being co-workers?

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Feng: After some re-organizing of the triad pecking order, the Feng couple found themselves bound and gagged on a ship, but at least they are alive. They are ready to make a fresh start, but have decided to work a smaller turf instead of trying to elbow themselves into Detroit’s criminal underworld (nevermind that Detroit’s criminal underworld actually is on the wagon train at the moment).

Fletcher: Cameron, Becca and Julia pooled their money to buy a wagon. They are excited about this journey and “finding themselves”.

Fyres: The Fyres couple wants to start fresh before they grow too old. Her father being a freed slave and her mother an irish immigrant are only vague tales from the past for Siobhan. But she knows that women are a rare commodity in the west and that she therefore can take her pick of the very best possible spouses! Meanwhile Morgan has joined the Renegades gang.

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Harris: A family of miners, fresh out of job, hoping for a better life in the west. They are aware that it might not be an easier one.

Holiday: A trio of childhood friends who are too close to fall in love with each other. Scott is a bit of a scholar who is interested in fossils, Liberty is his polar opposite, always tinkering with the wagons to the point of where the others expect her to make them fly next, and Summer is the all-around cheerful and supportive mom-friend.

Hollunder (Elderberry): Despite being a bright mind, young Rohan lacks the connections and funds to enter university. Maybe if he discovers and describes a useful herb or strange new fossil on this trek, he will get in? At least that’s what his grandparents hope. Meanwhile Rohan is more interested in discovering things about girls…

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Jericho: North*, Simon*, Lucy*, Josh* and his adopted son Eustace do not speak lightly about their pasts. At some point they owned a steamboat, the Jericho, but lost it along with the whole cargo when a valve failed and the engine blew up. After compensating the owners of their cargo, they had only the clothes on their backs and a little wood and sailcloth that went into the construction of their wagon.
The “Jericrew” sticks together, but the fact that all except for Eustace have developed a crush on the dashing Wagon Captain doesn’t help their chosen family relationship.

Simon is Daniel’s twin-brother, but they haven’t figured that out yet.

Lynx: Kate Lynx is an animal friend. She owns Barty jnr., several of the wagon train’s horses and of a handful of shares of the wagon train company. Kate has come to the conclusion that the journey to the Oregon territory is much easier nowadays than it was in the last decade (not to mention the skirmishes with the british) and decided to start a horse ranch in the west.

Manfred: Carl Manfred is a wealthy art patron and painter who travels with his sons, Leo and Markus*, and his servant, Martin* Davids. Carl wants to capture the “wild west”’s beauty once again. The family is well aware of the fact that Carl is too frail to make the journey back to Detroit and that they are traveling to Oregon to stay.
Despite having been quite the adventurer in his youth, Carl is walking impaired now, so he cannot act as a guide for the trek.

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Mayer: Ever-optimistic Jordan wants to be a photographer, a reporter, a painter, a medium… basically everything one of the other travelers does better and therefore inspires her. But she is well liked for her optimism.

Danny Shino-Miller has sworn to protect her forever and always. Under the impression that all he is good for is juggling a leather ball, he nevertheless hopes that one day he can prove himself as a suitable husband (while Jordan already considers Danny her fiancé and might very well already plan their wedding in Strangerville).

Munch: Another family fresh from an immigrant ship, from the city of Munich in their case. Wolfgang “Wolfie” doesn’t even speak english yet, but already got accepted into the Renegades gang. Little Lucas is interested in gardening and exploring while the oldest brother, Gunther, is such a prick (is so stuck up, maybe?) that he often gets mistaken for Mila’s husband.

Mila is a potential new partner for Hank Anderson.

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Ortiz: Cornelius* escaped a cruel master and now protects the GoGo girls Elaine, Traci* and Riley*. A butcher by trade he will suggest buying life cattle to drive along the trek at a later waystation.
Cornelius is known for being both deeply religious and superstitious.

Pancakes: Why can’t the man stay home, cook and tend to the garden, and the woman go to the factory or office every morning! All of Eliza’s and Bob’s issues would be solved that way! But the way things are, they packed and decided to become homesteaders, where they can make their own rules and work at their own pace.
And so Bob relaxes on the wagon all day, while Eliza is already calculating the expanses and investments of the first five years in Oregon. They are happy as they haven’t been in years (and there’s space for one or two babies in Liza’s calculations…)

Peterson: Lucille lost her husband on the immigrant ship, and wanted to settle as a washerwoman in Detroit instead of traveling further west. But her sons reassured her that they’ll provide just fine. How hard can it be to build a simple hut, a well and a garden, especially with the support of a mom like Lucille? That made her smile and now they are on their way to follow their dream.

Lucille is a potential new partner for Hank Anderson.

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Phillips*: My challenge family. Already introduced.

For some reason (that is totally not laziness) only the Phillips household will experience beard growth, hair getting increasingly unruly and clothes changes…

Rasoya: Raj is an impoverished Brahmin who worked as a cook and was faced with the prospect of either marrying below his status or not at all. Coming to America together with his old mother was the result of a long chain of events and decisions, but the man feels young enough to still make the best of his new life. At the wagon train Raj (now often called Ray) tries to be supportive from the background.

Sherfield: Andy and Mary are just that stereotypical couple of newlyweds. They are a bit of bad luck magnets, though: Mary fell ill during the first week in the forest, but recovered, Andy almost drowned in a river, but got pulled out, and now both their joy of life is infectious.

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Stratford: Sergeant John* McGee transports a confidential letter to Fort Laramie (and there will get another one to deliver to Fort Strangerville). He is surprisingly amiable for a military man, especially towards the handsome Wagon Captain.
Seth* Stratford is a travelogue writer freelancing for several papers at the east coast. Always at his side is his secretary, Rika, and they may end up even closer after reaching Strangerville.
Timothy* Peters is a smallscale criminal who is way too quick with his mouth and fists. He thinks this will be less of a problem in west, and that Strangerville will be more like “his kind of town”. He may be right, but his attitude poses a problem on the trek.

Straud: Dr. Vladislaus Straud is here to care for the wagon train’s physical wellbeing. Such an old man, but still so dedicated, isn’t that heartwarming?
At two hundred years old Vlad is, in fact, a still somewhat young vampire, who wholeheartedly embraces the modern times. He spends many hours of the day hanging from the ceiling of his wagon in batform – testament to his uncouth youthful ways. His education aside, Vlad is closer to Timothy and the Renegades than to the older travelers.

Travis: The farmer Rupert* Travis and the gardener Ralph* Camden think they are well prepared for their new life in Oregon Territory, but may find more than they bargained for…

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Villareal: Scions of the french founders of Detroit, this household now has to leave the region because Jacques got banished from Detroit for his criminal exploits, but that’s all the same to him. Maybe in traveling he will find clues about his wife’s whereabouts, who left him when she couldn’t support Jacques’ lifestyle anymore.

Zest: Just your average disgruntled rich man’s son who wants to prove that he can stand on his own. The only problem: His parents took that literally and disowned Johnny, so now he is broke. But working can’t be that hard, can it now? Or maybe he should write his memories?